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KIM FOSTER - ARTISTS: Kathleen Mulcahy, Ron Desmett

469 views · Published 28 February 2015 · 10:19 · Indexed 22 October 2026

Channel: NYC GALLERY OPENINGS · 2015 · Entertainment

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Kim Foster Gallery is pleased to present recent glass 
works by Kathleen Mulcahy and Ron Desmett. Each 
has a unique approach to the material.

Kathleen Mulcahy’s glass panels imitate the look of 
liquid elements in nature. But there is nothing of 
nature’s seemingly random behavior in these 
compositions. Instead, Mulcahy simplifies the 
irregularity of organic shapes to create controlled 
arrangements. Her glass elements may be prompted 
by something observed in nature, but they have 
been refined to a purified geometric form. Works in 
this series involve hot-worked and flame-worked 
glass shapes attached to slumped and acid etched 
plate glass backed by a fabricated steel sheet.The 
result calls to mind levees or floodgates meant to 
manage or prevent the flow of water.

Kathleen Mulcahy lives and works in Oakdale, PA 
with her partner, Ron Desmett. For the past 30 years 
they have worked as independent artists on projects 
for installation in private glass collections, corporate 
offices, public art projects and solo exhibitions 
throughout the United States. They developed the 
Pittsburgh Glass Center. for which they were 
honored as Pennsylvania Artist of the Year in 2013. 
Their glass works are in many public and private 
collections including the American Craft Museum, 
The Corning Museum of Glass, The Carnegie 
Museum of Art, The Renwick Galleries of the 
Smithsonian Institution and The Westmoreland 
Museum of Art. They have won numerous awards 
including grants from the NEA, the Pennsylvania 
Council on the Arts, and a Fulbright.

Artist Statement  2/15

I am floating along on the West Branch of the 
Susquehanna.  It is a slow, wide river and the 
riverbed is so close you can almost touch it from the 
edge of the canoe.  My arm drops over the edge 
and I let my fingers open to the cool sluice of water 
through my fingers.  The colors are warm iron, 
orange, browns, sand and dark shadows of the 
vessel quietly transporting us from campsite to 
campsite.  I begin my work by recalling a body of 
water.  It could be the deepest blue and high bright 
reflections of the open sea, emerald green of an 
alpine lake, horizon line at the Gulf or the shallow 
bed of a lazy river. Several things coalesce in my 
dreaming on water:  the need to look deeply below 
the surface, below the skin, allowing the 
transparency and diffusion of the etching to obscure 
and reveal at the same time.  This river or stretch of 
horizon that I am willing into being presents me with 
that perfect moment of a storm receding, the air 
clearing and the feeling that everything has become 
new. Take a breath it says, everything is listening.

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